4 Ways Leading Companies Attract Top Tech Talent

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The labor market is dominated by two conflicting stories. First,
how will we get 12 million people back to work? The second
(and least understood) concerns the battle many companies
are waging to recruit tech talent. More than a third of IT
employers have open positions they currently can’t fill,
according to a recent CareerBuilder/ Sologig.com study. In
the long-term, we’ll need more college grads and
professionals to choose engineering and computer science
fields. There is a silver lining to the current tech
talent crunch: Competition breeds innovation, even in the
talent acquisition space.

If a tech position sits unfilled for months, it’s the job of the
CTO to ask, “What else can we be doing to make our company a
destination for top talent?” Clearly, competitive
compensation plays a huge role, but successful recruiting
goes beyond being able to outspend the competitor.
Fortunately, we can learn from leading companies who
are creatively navigating the tight labor market in
information technology. Simply put, four key strategies they
use are:

Hack It

Pool It

Prove It

Train it

1. Hack It. Companies invest in technology to
deliver customer value faster than their competitors, and
nothing tests the bounds of possibility better than a
“hackathon” – competitions that fuel immediate improvements
and solutions. Developers want to work for companies
where they can create new code and have an immediate impact.

Facebook made hacking famous, but tech
companies have been using internal hack competitions to
attract and retain talent for years. Yelp spotlights its hack day on its “Careers” page,
as does CareerBuilder on its
YouTube channel. ESPN promoted its
hackathon on Front Row – the company’s behind the scenes
blog – and had a documentary crew follow around teams of
developers challenged to create new products in 36 hours.
Allstate’s weekend hackathon saw 42 teams of developers
compete to create the best mobile app; eight teams won cash
prizes and the company moved forward with the winning app.

There are other opportunities to identify potential talent
through Hackathons. Sponsor competitions at
universities or in your backyard (check MeetUp).
Yahoo and Facebook sponsor university
hackathons. Also, ask your developers what competitions
they’re passionate about or suggest some related to your
initiatives in mobile, APIs, or their personal interests.
For example, Code for America invites developers to generate
web-based solutions for city governments across the country.
These are opportunities for your developers to expand
their networks for future referrals and to elevate their
skills.

2. Pool It. The shortage of tech talent means
most recruiters are forced to look beyond their own
backyards. Consider Milwaukee, WI, which will have to
replace more than 5,700 tech workers about to retire in
the next five years. That’s on top of any new tech positions
sure to be created. This is a challenge for several reasons:
the pipeline of talent coming from local schools just isn’t
there; fewer Americans are willing to relocate in a
still-sluggish housing market; and Milwaukee, although home
to many large companies and corporate offices, is not a
Silicon Valley-type destination for tech workers.

So how can companies outside of the Bay area compete? One answer
is for local governments, associations, and companies to
pool their resources. The majority of employers compete
individually for talent, with little budget to make the
impact needed to build a reputation as an employer of
choice. It’s a financial stretch for many small or mid-sized
companies to fund recruiting campaigns to fill just two
or three open positions. Instead, take a page from Austin,
TX. The Austin Technology Council is starting a program
where a group of eight companies will each pay a reasonable
sum to hire a contract recruiter to tour major universities,
represent the companies, and develop a list of 100 top
prospects. From there, the companies will pursue
the candidates individually. Rent a bus and set up a
“Tech Tour of Milwaukee” and invite students from campuses
in surrounding areas.

Otherwise, expect that talent to board a bus headed for
Silicon Valley.

Also, companies can do a better job working together to sell
their market as a desirable place to start or grow a career.
New York City recently launched MappedinNY, an interactive job map
that visually maps 500 digital startups, investors and
co-working spaces. There’s obviously only one New York, but
it’s an idea that can be replicated in virtually any
market.

3. Prove it. Never underestimate the power of
culture. In a June 2011 MIT survey, engineering graduates
reported the top three factors influencing their interest in
a job were 1) creative and challenging work, 2) fit with the
culture/environment, and 3) opportunity to make an impact.
Developing a clear answer to “What’s in it for me?”
can mitigate a candidate’s desire for the top salary, if
you’re not paying above market. There’s really no bounds to
what companies are doing – e.g. dog friendly offices, free
haircuts, and even lessons from venture capitalists on how
to create one’s own startup.

Every company says that it has a great culture. You have to
prove it. Using video on your career site, YouTube, and social media channels is
essential and affordable. Twitter depicts its office culture with a
clever satire of a traditional recruiting video. Zappos has
a blog devoted solely to the inner-workings of its famed
office culture and values. Zynga reminds us that these videos don’t have to be flashy, just
authentic. What’s more, employers frequently forget these
details in their job listings on CareerBuilder and Sologig,
but there are few better places to get a prospect excited
before they click “apply.”

4. Train it. A lot of recruiters post jobs for
requiring the hottest IT skills like java, mobile, ruby on
rails, php) and wait . . . and then wait a little while
longer. If you’re taking 4-6 months to hire a web developer
– one of the hottest jobs in the country – consider
a different option. Try retraining an existing non-tech
employee or hire and train someone unemployed for the
in-demand skill set. When I suggest this to companies, I
often hear the objection “but I need someone experienced
now.” Yet if the sorely needed position hasn’t been filled,
why not consider the parallel path? Fortunately, 38 percent
of employers in a recent CareerBuilder survey say that
this year they’ll be hiring and training workers who don’t
have prior experience in their particular industry.

If you don’t have the training infrastructure to make this
happen, there are several options. Codecademy, Google Code University, and Udacity all
offer free training and resources in the computer sciences.
Code School – used by NASA, IBM and AT&T, among others – is a
premium service offering courses in the most in demand
development languages today. Check your community colleges
for programs like Oakton Community College’s Programming and
Database Design — many are offering these courses and can be
partners to help you retrain employees or be new candidate
sources.

The message of all this, regardless of your tactics: If you want
the best innovators, you’d better get innovative in how you
approach recruiting them.